Kuwait’s new oil minister Ali Saleh al-Omair, appointed last week in another government reshuffle, faces a number of obstacles if he wants to push ahead with the country’s ambitious plan of reaching 4 million barrels a day of oil production by 2020.

Mr. al-Omair, who has been a lawmaker since 2006 and is a member of the Islamic Salafi Alliance, is known for his pro-government views but unlike his veteran predecessor Mustapha al-Shamali, he doesn’t enjoy the support of the chief executive and board of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp., or KPC.

“Shamali is a strong man who knew KPC well from his days as a board member and he has faced parliamentary pressure before as a finance minister so he could have pushed through many delayed projects,” an industry source said. “Kuwait wanted to balance the cabinet by appointing a lawmaker who may be able to talk his way through the parliament but it is very likely that not much will change and the political bickering between the government and the parliament will continue despite his unusual choice.”

Kuwait oil officials and industry sources have previously said that the country, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, won’t be able to meet its crude oil production target of 4 million barrels a day by 2020 because of political deadlock between parliament and government that has often hampered energy projects.

Political tension in the country, which has a capacity of around 3.2 million barrels a day, and grillings of cabinet members by lawmakers over alleged mismanagement and corruption led to the latest cabinet reshuffle, the 13th such move since 2006. Mr. al-Omair himself is the ninth oil minister in 10 years.

“I don’t see much hope either for (Kuwait’s energy policies),” said Robin Mills, head of consulting at Manaar Energy in Dubai. “I thought that Shamali was quite positively received and he was the most promising oil minister they had for a while.”

The KPC also is undergoing major changes after a management shake-up following a $2.19bn compensation payment to Dow Chemical Company, which triggered intense political pressure on the government, Mr. Mills added.

Mr. al-Omair, constitutionally cannot be grilled for the decisions of past ministers including the Dow payment, but things may not be so quiet for him for long, especially if he fails to accelerate the country’s energy projects and rebuild morale in the industry.